Two as One
by iamamisfit
Summary: Prologue. Kira is a strange girl who happens to have a unique neighbor. Kurama x OC
1. Chocolate Milk

The very first time that I showcased my odd abilities was when I was only three years old. Of course, because I was so young, I don't remember all the exact details. But my mother likes to bring it up every once and a while to hold it over my head. She tells me that it was one of the most terrifying moments of her entire life, even though she was only nineteen years old when it happened.

It was right after lunch, and I had been contently watching a show about a bunch of overweight aliens. I had been fine, but when the first show ended, I got up and went into the kitchen demanding chocolate milk from my mother.

"Kira-baby!" You just had some choco." My mother scolded me, shutting her magazine as she turned to me. She leaned over and pressed a kiss to my forehead, then gently fixed a part of my blonde hair.

But because I was only three years old, that logic didn't quite get to me. I pouted and big tears ended up forming in my big blue eyes.

"Honey, please…" She started, but then it began so she wasn't able to finish her sentence.

Everything in the kitchen began to shake violently. Pans were slamming together above our heads, the drawers were sliding open and the things on the refrigerator were sliding down onto the ground. The floor beneath our feet was bouncing, almost sending my mom out of her chair.

Of course, my mom's first reaction was that an intense earthquake was happening. Years of earthquake drills had her down good, but because we were on the bottom floor of a five story building, she decided to not get under the table. So she grabbed me by under my arm pits, and ran out of the kitchen. As she ran, she didn't notice that nothing else in the house was moving.

We reached outside, only to see that everything was still outdoors. There was no shaking out here, but we could still hear the kitchen shaking from outside with the door open. My mother was confused as she looked around, the streets basically empty.

A thousand questions went through her mind as she stood outside, holding me. Slowly, she set me down as I wanted to get out of her arms. All became clear to her when the chocolate milk came floating out of the house. I jumped in the air quickly and wrapped my arms around the carton, smiling happily.

"Choco!"

My memory is basically non-existent up to this point. I only remember two things, both of which happened after it. One, my mother taught me that I couldn't do this whenever I wanted something. She spanked me and told me that what I had done was wrong. That what I had with me, was something that I couldn't use against people to get my way. Two, it was the first time I saw my red headed neighbor.


	2. A FriendKinda

When I turned five years old, my life hit its very first bump. My mom had set me up to start a pre-school, but after three weeks at the school they asked her to take me out of the class. They said that I wasn't getting along with the other kids and that I my odd behavior wasn't appropriate for me to in that environment. Unfortunately, that was not what my mom had planned. She had gone back to work after my father decided that he was no longer going to help pay for everything. She had no choice but to work and leave me at home, because she couldn't afford to pay a babysitter.

It was fine with me, even though I appeared to be alone; my abilities had opened up a new door. I could not converse and see the dead, along with a few otherworldly creatures. They kept me company, and they kept me safe. But because I was spending so much time with the dead, I was incredibly awkward around the living. Even around my own mother, as she was working so much.

I didn't have much of a schedule in my long days, but at seven thirty in the morning, I watched the red haired boy leave for school. At two thirty, I watched him come home. There was just something to odd about the boy, and the creatures knew it too.

"Kira." My mother whispered to me, gently waking me up early in the morning before she went to work. I smiled at her and wrapped my arms tighter around my small pony as she kissed my forehead. "Get up, I found someone that will watch you."

I didn't know if I was disappointed or excited. But I got up and got changed into some new clothes. Reaching down, my mother quickly put my long blonde hair into a bun on top of my head.

"You can bring her." She said with a laugh, watching as I nervously looked over at my stuffed bear. As she smiled at me, I reached out and grabbed the bear, wrapping my arms around it and following her.

She took my hand as we crossed the street, and as the door opened it became clear where I was staying exactly. I knew that her name was Shiori Minamino, she'd stopped by the house without her son plenty of times. She was nice, and I really liked her.

"Hello,Kira!" She said, smiling wide as a pair of narrow green eyes stayed in the door way watching what was happening outside of his house. I smiled politely and bowed, my wispy bangs falling into my face. She smiled and bowed back to me. "Shuichi, come here."

The red headed boy stepped out, looking down at me as he was fairly taller than me. "Hi." This was all he said to me, and he looked up at his mother. "It's time for school." He said in a nearly deadpan voice, receiving a kiss on his forehead from his mom.

It didn't seem quite right that such a loving and happy woman would end up with such a cold and weird child. I looked at him, watching as a creature made faces at him. For a second, I thought I saw him look at the creature, but I knew it had to be a mistake.

My mom said goodbye to me not long after Shuichi left, smiling at me as she whispered for me to have fun today. Even though it felt weird to be among someone that was alive, I had a lot of fun that day.

That was, until Shuichi returned home and his mother insisted that the two of us go play in the backyard in the garden. I walked out back with him, chewing on a carrot.

"What grade are you in?" I asked, not getting an answer as we walked into the garden. I was just following him. "Do you like school?" Hey, I was trying.

"Kira." He said, turning around right before his yard turned into the forest that was behind his house. "Stay here, and leave me alone."

With that, he turned around and walked away, leaving me at the edge of the forest. My lower lip began to tremble as he walked away, looking around as I stood in his backyard.

"He's rude." A young girl said from beside me, her brown eyes watching me. I could tell that she wasn't alive, and I couldn't have been more thankful to have a dead friend at the moment. I nodded as I looked down at the ground.

"He's a meany!" I yelled at his figure, watching as he disappeared into the forest. The girl beside me let out a sigh and motioned for me to follow her.

So I did, and I continued following her deep into the woods. We played all sorts of games, giggling and laughing together. She was a much better playmate than Shuichi had been. But as the time passed by, I realized that it was getting darker.

When I turned around, I realized that the girl had disappeared. I was all alone.

The darkness was incasing me, and at five years old I was freaking terrified of the dark. I'd heard so many stories from the creatures of what can be in the dark. I got down on the ground and huddled under a tree, staying where I was.

My mother had always told me if I was lost to stay where I was, so I did.

I just sat there, for God only knows how long. I didn't even hear Shuichi come up, but all of a sudden he was beside me and looking at me the way my mother does when I do something wrong. I looked up at him and rubbed my eyes.

"Why didn't you go back in?" He asked, watching me.

"Because the dead girl wanted to play out here." I said, covering my mouth quickly after I said that. That was something that I shouldn't have said. But Shuichi just nodded, grab my hand and brought me back to his house.

When we reached his house, he continued to hold my hand. His mother smiled at us, but my mom looked exhausted.

"Are you two good friends now?" Shori said with a laugh, looking at our hands connected. I was about to shake my head and be honest, but Shuichi decided to answer.

"Yes."


	3. Kiss

Shuichi and I became friends very slowly. His personality seemed to do a one eighty by the time he was eight years old. He was suddenly very friendly and kind to everyone. But that didn't stop him from keeping me at an emotional arms length at all times. Elementary school was made easy because of him, and I made friends easily because of his guidance. Two of them ended up being my very close friends, Mina and Rae. In my first year of middle school, Shiori got very sick. For the next year she was in and out of the hospital. Until, she just stayed in the hospital.

I hid in the shade to keep the sun from beating down on my head; I sat under the large tree in my front yard. The horror novel lay in my lap, opened up towards the beginning as I read quietly. My school was out for the week, due to the fact that a few of the younger kids in the elementary school had either disappeared or gotten very sick. They thought that it was catching, so they let us out.

A shiver went up my spine as I read, getting farther into the book than I usually get into books. I didn't even notice Shuichi sitting down beside me until I notice the purple pant leg not too far from my own. I placed a piece of paper between the pages and shut the book.

For a few minutes we just sat there, neither of us saying anything. I could almost feel the stress of his mother's sickness coming off of him, and had I been a bolder person I probably would've given him a hug. But like I said before, he kept me at an emotional arms length.

"How's your mom?" I asked quietly, turning my head to finally look at him. My heart nearly broke over how utterly sad he looked. But he forced a soft smile and met my gaze.

"She's going to get better." He responded, which surprised me due to the expression on his face.

"Then why do you look so upset?" I asked, brushing my lengthy bangs out of my eyes so that I could watch him. His gaze left mine and stared off into the distance, and I knew that he wasn't going to tell me what exactly what was happening.

We remained in silence for a while, and my attention was soon attracted to a bird making a nest in a tree nearby.

"I want you to have this." Shuichi said quietly, holding out a rose. I felt a warm blush come to my cheeks as I took it away from him, looking at the perfect flower between my fingers. There was something different about this flower, but I couldn't quite place it.

With that, he stood up. He placed his hand on my head, and suddenly a thought of dread came to me as he walked away.

"Everything's going to be alright, right?" I asked, getting up and holding the flower to my chest. I didn't get an answer.

It was past midnight when I woke up with a start, sitting up quickly and feeling my heart slamming against my chest. But I couldn't remember what had caused me to wake up in such a way. I happened to look out the window and see Shuichi just standing outside in the middle of the street.

I felt a bit of panic inside my chest as I got up, pulling a jacket on and running outside. I was only wearing a large t-shirt, and of course the jacket. I opened the gate to the apartment complex and looked at him.

"Shuichi?" I asked, dreading the worst. He turned around and looked at me for a while, obviously surprised that I was out of bed.

A few seconds later, a bright smile came onto his lips and his head tilted to the side. I let out a light sigh of relief when I saw this.

"So she's alright?" I asked, wrapping my arms around myself in order to keep myself warm.

"She can come home soon, she's perfectly healed." He said, walking towards me. I smiled when I heard this, my faith in something bigger than us being restored. Because clearly a miracle had happened.

Then the second miracle happened that night. He leaned down, and pressed a quick kiss to my lips. He lingered there for a while, and then turned around to go to his home.

I was left in the street, pressing a finger to my lips.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes:<p>

I feel like I should mention that all of this is a prologue.

ALL OF THIS 'Story' is a prologue to another story that will be much more flowy.


	4. Bugs

The kiss between me and Shuichi was very nice and all, but it didn't amount to anything at the time. We never talked about it after it happened, and it certainly didn't affect our friendship. This was probably because he seemed to get incredibly busy after his mother got better and came home. Every day after school, I would head over to the Minamino's house and talk to her for a while.

Today was different, however. My mother was bringing home a guy that she'd been seeing for a while, so that I could finally meet him. But because she had to work, I had to go to the market to get the supplies for dinner. I made it to the door and saw the note, grabbing it and read it. When I finished reading it, I turned around and put the list in the front of my basket; it was basically a lot of rice, some fish and three different kinds of spices.

I headed into town with a pretty lazy pace, enjoying the sunshine making it pleasurable. I was pretty into it, that at first I didn't notice that something was very wrong with the marketplace.

Placing my feet on the ground, I waved my hand in front of my face to get the demon bug out of my face, watching it fly away as it gave up. As I looked around, it disturbed me how many there were just hanging around. But what disturbed me more was the fact that there seemed to be no one around. It was perfect weather and perfect time for a ton of people to be buying. Even if it was a crappy day, you'd at least expect over fifty people trying to sell their things.

But there was no one. I got off of my bike and placed it against a side of the building, peeking into one of the shops nearby. It was one of the more popular shops, but there was still no one in there. I watched as one of the bugs disappeared into a wall, and started walking through the empty market.

I'm pretty sure I'd seen a movie that was like this, and remembering the happenings of the movie made the hairs on the back of my neck stick straight up. "Hello?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips. Whatever was happening was definitely a part of whatever those bugs were doing.

Passing by an alley, I didn't get to see the girl coming at me with the baseball bat until the baseball bat had hit me right in the face. I barely had a chance to understand what had happened, as I'd been knocked right out.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry!" The voice snapped me right out of the dream, opening my eyes and looking up at the blue haired girl that was staring down at me with big eyes. Raising my hand up to my face, I rubbed where the baseball bat had hit me. Without a doubt, I was going to have a giant bruise there.

"It's alright." I said, sitting up. A wave of dizziness came over me, and I stayed where I was for a minute and then it disappeared. "Why are you hitting people with bats?"

"Oh! No reason!" The girl said, a catlike innocent smile coming onto her face as she placed the baseball bat behind her back.

"Does it have something to do with the bugs?" I asked, and she blinked like I wasn't supposed to say that. But then she nodded. "What's going on?"

"That's a long story! But if you can see them, then this will be twice as fast!" She said, reaching somewhere in the alley and handing me a frying pan. I blinked and then shrugged, accepting her hand and standing up. We spent a good fifteen minutes beating the bugs to death; we made it halfway through the street.

"Oh!" She said, pulling an odd kind of cell phone out of her pocket and looked at the screen. Since I was curious, I peeked over the other's shoulder and saw a boy with slicked back black hair. Technology never ceased to amaze me.

"Uh…Boton, who's that?" The boy asked, blinking as he looked in my general direction. Boton looked at me with a somewhat blank expression on her face.

"Hi, I'm Kira." I said, raising my hand in an awkward wave to him.

"She can see the bugs too." Boton said, with a smile, grabbing my hand with her free hand to show him the frying pan in my hand. There were quite a few bug guts splattered on the side of the pan. The boy just shrugged and asked her to go to the school; he wanted to make sure that a girl named Keiko would be okay.

Boton seemed fine with this, and she slid the cell phone like thing into her back pocket, making her way towards a school that I wasn't familiar with.

"Who's Keiko?" I asked, hitting a bug away from me as it began to buzz towards me.

"Yusuke's friend." She said, sounding happy. I began to realize that she never sounded everything but happy, which was a nice thing to me.

When we reached the school, a man was staring down at the ground and walking towards us. I tilted my head to the side; there was something very wrong with him. It took him some time to recognize that we were nearby, and when he did, he gave us an absolutely creepy smile. Then he lunged towards us.

I couldn't help but scream, holding the pan up to my face as though it was going to shield me from whatever was running towards me. At the same time that I did this, Boton must've swung the bat because I heard the sound of wood hitting flesh. This was something that I had heard not too long ago.

"We have to hurry!" She said, motioning me to follow her into the school, which I did. I ran along behind her, and it wasn't long until we reached a girl hiding in the frame of a door, looking at Boton with a relieved look on her face.

I was too jumpy to pay attention to what they were saying, and ended up hitting a man that looked like a teacher before he could grab any one of us.

"Let's go!"

The next twenty minutes are a pretty long blur to me, a mix of running and knocking people over the head with a frying pan. In the end however, right before we were about to be overpowered and possibly murdered by a group of insane people, they dropped.

Thankfully, no one died.

It was days later that I found Boton standing outside of school, waiting for me. I had a huge and nasty bruise over where she had hit me, and she immediately apologized when she saw me.

"Keiko and I wanted to treat you to diner for helping us!" She said after apologizing, I nodded happily in response.

The whole way there, we talked as though we were friends for years. With that thought, I thought about Shuichi, and how I hadn't seen him for a while. I'm sure he would've been interested in the story of those whack job people; I wondered what he'd make of it.

"I'm actually really bad at making onigiri." She said, opening the door to an apartment and walking in.

"Don't worry, I am too." I said, laughing. But that quickly stopped when I saw who was sitting and talking to an orange haired boy. "Shuichi?"

Shuichi's head snapped as he looked at me, his green eyes wide with surprise upon seeing him. There was definitely something going on right now.

"I'm Kuwabara, and this is Kurama. You must have us mistaken for someone else." The orange haired boy said, blinking as he looked at me. Although I did notice that his eyes weren't exactly staying on my face. Boton just stood there, looking between me and Shuichi.

He stood up and grabbed me by the arm, pulling me into one of the rooms. The other two just watched us, and then disappeared as the door shut.

"I have a feeling you have a lot of explaining to do." I said the confusion still very much on my face as I looked at him.

So he began to explain, and he explained it all; the fact he was a demon, a fox thief to be exact. That he had stolen a mirror to save his mother, befriended Yusuke, and went to go help Yusuke when against Saint beasts..Or whatever.

Somewhere around him leaving to help Yusuke started to piss me off. It occurred to me that he had been lying to me for years, even though I had been honest about him with everything. I didn't notice that things began to shake all around the room, as I got angrier.

"Why did you never tell me this?" It was a rhetorical question of course, not that I let him answer me. I just walked out, not even saying goodbye to anyone as I exited.

* * *

><p>Disclaimer: The characters and plot belong to the creator of Yu Yu hakusho.<p>

Author's Note:

The next 5 are going to be based around the Dark Tournament.

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	5. Invite

The absolute hardest part of not talking to Shuichi was probably not being able to talk to him at all. There were so many questions that ran through my mind every single time I saw him, but I couldn't get over my anger long enough to even approach him. The second hardest part was the Shuichi didn't even bother to once try and strike up a conversation with me that only fueled my anger towards my red headed friend. However, I tried not to let my anger towards him, affect my conversations with his mother. But she was clearly starting to tell that things were wrong between me and her son. Once he came home, I was gone as quickly as I could.

I placed the money in the hand of the cashier, smiling as I got the change and my bag of supplies that I'd just purchased. I'm one of those people that could probably end up doing anything that they could want. I could be a doctor if I tried, or a businesswoman. But, as my grandmother would put it, I was wasting my time with pitiful art. I liked painting and sketching, and if that's all I could do for the rest of my life, I would be happy.

I pulled my new sketchbook out of my bag, placing the new pens and paint brushes into the back pocket of my shorts. It was a day off, so I was able to really wear whatever I wanted. I liked the color of my school uniform, but I didn't exactly like wearing it all the time. So I opted for short black shorts and a loose light blue t-shirt. I began to walk through the streets, heading towards home. It was right then that I heard someone calling my name behind me.

Turning quickly on my heels, I smiled as I saw Botan and Keiko coming my way, along with a taller woman. Even though a smile was on my face, I still felt embarrassed for walking out on them the last time.

"Hi!" I said, because none the less I was happy to see the two of them. Botan ran up to me, and developed me into a big hug. Her happiness was contagious, and I found myself hugging her back. "How have you two been?"

"Oh great!" Keiko said, tilting her head to the side. "Are you going to the tournament? I mean, to cheer on Kurama."

I had to think for a bit to remember who she was talking about, because I still hadn't thought about that name since that day. When it clicked, I turned red and shook my head quickly. "I don't know what he's doing, we haven't talked since…"

I knew I didn't need to finish it because Botan's face light up with understanding and she nodded. "You should go."

"I don't even know what you're talking about." I admitted, tilting my head to the side as I let out a sigh. Seconds later, they were explaining everything to me. My head hurt by the end of the explanation, but I got it. So I answered their thoughts. "I don't think he would want to see me."

Keiko gave Botan and Shizuru a look, the two of them walking off to give me and her some privacy. "I can see how much you care about him, and if you care about him so much it will mean something for you to be there for him."

To make a long story short, I finally agreed to go along and watch the boys fight. It took quite a bit persuading by the three girls, but I was no match for them. When we finally did meet the boys, I kept my eyes to the ground and half of me was hidden behind Shizuru. I could never have been more thankful for a tall girl to be in front of me. I thought I was going to be able to sneak by Shuichi without getting asked everything under the sun.

But come on, we're talking about Shuichi; of course I wasn't going to be getting away with being there.

I felt his hand on my arm, and quietly groaned as I turned around to look at him.

"Why are you here?" He asked, his brow wrinkling in confusion.

I swatted his hand away from my arm and looked at him. "Because Botan and Keiko invited me."

"You shouldn't be here."

"Why not?"

"It's too dangerous."

"I can handle it."

"No you can't."

I gave him a sharp glare and turned around to follow the girls. "That's my problem! Not yours!"


	6. Tears

Not even in my worst of all nightmares could I have come up with something as messed up as the Dark Tournament. I watched it in the same way that a person would watch a horrible car accident. In the last round of the tournament, however, I spent most of my time in tears. My chest was aching as I watched the horrible ongoing in the Team Urameshi versus Team Masho.

The first match was Kurama versus Gama. Despite the fact that Kurama couldn't move by the end of the match, he still managed to win. But there was something in the blood that was on h8im, because his energy was trapped inside and for a while he couldn't move too much. But he ended up winning, and I started crying once I understood what he had done. Botan knew what to do, covering my eyes with her hands and keeping me close to her for the entire last match with Kurama.

But it was all over now, and Yusuke told me that Kurama was going to be perfectly fine. Even though I knew this and I was mad at him, I just needed to make sure for myself that he'd be fine.

When I had entered the room, he was sound asleep in his bed. I knew that the polite thing would have been to leave, but I couldn't find it in myself to do it. I also didn't want to wake him up; he looked so pale and exhausted. So I did the next best thing, I sat quietly in the sofa near the window and looked outside. I held my knees up to my chest, listening to the slow and steady breathing nearby.

"At least he's safe." I whispered quietly to myself, running my fingers through my hair. "For now…"

I had previously believed that Kurama didn't want me there. But I was beginning to think that maybe he didn't want me to have to see this. I wanted to know his life, no matter how painful it was for me to see. I wanted to know who he really was, instead of the person he had created.

Bringing my hand to my face, I brushed away a few tears that had started again. I didn't think I had any left in me anymore.

"Kira?" His voice sounded so tired, and I quickly made sure that my tears were no longer there. I debated just getting up and leaving him, now that I was one hundred percent sure that he was fine.

"Yeah?" I said quietly. He said nothing to me to answer me. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling better." Which was reassuring, and probably the only real answer he could give. "Are you okay?"

Crap, he noticed.

"I'm great!" I said with a ton of faux enthusiasm, smiling at him and giving him a thumb up. He definitely wasn't going to buy it.

"Kira." He said, letting out a sigh and pushing himself. "Come here."

He wasn't asking, he was definitely demanding me to go over to his bed. So I got up, my knees felt as though they were going to give out as I sat on the corner of his bed. I stayed quiet as I looked down at the ground.

"Talk to me." He murmured quietly, leaning back on the pillows behind him.

"I thought you were going to die." I whispered, the tears already forcing themselves forward, looking over at him. "I was scared…"

I looked down, biting where my lips met, wishing I hadn't said anything. I wondered what was going through his mind as he was silent behind me. I was hoping that he had fallen back asleep and I could sneak out.

But something better happened, I felt an arm wrap around my waist and pull me back. He maneuvered me so that he could hold me, and he was holding me close to him. Shutting my eyes, I let out a sigh and moved closer to him.

"You should have left." He murmured, but that was the end of that conversation. I stayed close to him, and I fell asleep as he healed and slept.

* * *

><p>Author's Note<p>

This one's short, because...It didn't need to be all that long. It's just fluff for Christ sake!

Can I just take a moment and thank the everlovingstuffing out of you guys?

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	7. Stress

During the days, I spent almost all my time with the girls that rooted for Team Urameshi. I had become good friends with them all for different reasons. Botan was just so nice to everyone, and was just a downright friend. Yukina was so sweet, but she was quiet. Shizuru was funny in an odd sort of way, and we shared the ability of a connection with the dead. Keiko and I shared the bond of having childhood friends that we cared about in the tournament.

But at night, I slept with Kurama. I really hope that no one thought anything bad about this, thinking that we were having sex late into the night or something. We would talk for hours, about anything at all. But it was usually about what had happened during the day. I was happy about learning about the real him, which was all I really wanted. When we ran out of things to say to each other, we fell asleep.

But every day, by the time that I finally woke up, he was gone and his spot was cold.

This day was no different; I woke up later than usual, and I got up as quickly as I could. Sliding on tight jean shorts and a black t-shirt, I rose my arms up and stretched myself out. It wasn't that I didn't want to hang out with the girls today; I just needed to prepare myself. The final round of the Dark Tournament was coming on soon enough.

The nerves had begun, and so had the betting. I got outside of the place that we were staying, and not even a second later someone was asking for me to take a bet.

"Come on, kid!" The demon yelled, holding up his box full of money. I just held a hand up so that he couldn't get any closer to me.

"No thank you."I said, letting out a quiet sigh as I avoided the man as best as I could. I avoided his other little friends and went as quickly as possible into the forest nearby.

Finally, the forest was the place that gives me the nicest relaxation that I need badly currently.

I continued to walk through the forest, jumping over a few of the fallen trees that probably didn't happen naturally. I reached the sudden drop of a cliff, listening to the water beating up against the rocks down below. I near the edge, and looked down into the water. It was straight down, and if I was stupid enough to jump off I would be quickly engulfed by the white water below.

Even though the fact that there was rushing white water only thirty feet below me, I found that I could relax easily and just sit down for a bit. Not too far away from the edge of the cliff was a tree stump. I was beginning to think that out here wasn't as safe as I had originally thought it would be. I just hoped that no one from the Toguro team would decide to use me as practice.

The stump was large enough for me to comfortably curl up on it, shutting my eyes as I relaxed. My grasp of how much time had passed wasn't working well today, because when I opened my eyes it was dark out. I figured that it wouldn't hurt resting this much, considering tomorrow was bound to give me a stress ball like no one had ever seen before.

Sitting up, I peeked over the edge and saw the white water getting higher as the tide came in. I hoped that no one had gotten worried about me; I realized that it probably would have been safer if I had told someone where I was going. A little bit of paranoia filtered into my brain and I had to let out a sigh, and tell myself that it would be fine going back.

I waited until I really did believe that I'd be fine, then went onto go back to the hotel.

It was more difficult to navigate the woods with the lack of light, and those logs that I had jumped over previously were causing me to nearly fall flat on my face. A flash of light silver appeared in the corner of my eye suddenly, and when I turned to see what it was exactly, it was gone. My first reaction was to start running, but since it was dark I didn't want to do any serious damage to myself.

So I continued to walk slowly, until I almost walked into a tall figure. When I looked up, I knew that face, but I just couldn't place it. The man had pointed ears, golden eyes and a pasty complexion. Then it dawned on me, leaving me feel like a bit of an idiot.

"Kurama." I said, stating his name so that I could either be corrected or not.

"Yes." This was not his voice however, it was deeper and it sent a shiver up and down my spine. "Why aren't you in the hotel?"

"I was out near the water."

"Alone?"

"Clearly."

He gave me a scolding look, one that I had gotten used to. "That's dangerous."

I decided that instead of getting a ear full, that I'd just change the subject. "How are you all…Foxy?"

I knew that he could no longer jump into this form, so seeing him like this was a bit confusing for me. I knew that he had changed in the battle between him and the guy with the smoke box, but other than that he told me that he couldn't do it.

"I had some help."

Letting out a sigh, I could tell that Yoko Kurama was aiming to be a lot more secretive than his other half. It's almost like they have a nearly identical split personality. "Alright."

Turning around, I thought I heard something behind us. But there was nothing, when I turned back he had transformed back to Shuichi.

"Fifteen minutes." He said, looking at his watch for a second.

"Is that enough time?" I asked, even if I had no idea what he was talking about.

"No idea." He murmured, as we began to walk back to the hotel, walking close together.


	8. Danger

Lifting up my light blonde long bangs, I inspected a cut where my hairline started. It wasn't incredibly deep, so at least I didn't have to go to the hospital again. Ever since the tournament ended with Team Urameshi as the winners, the amount of ghosts and demons wanting my attention had nearly tripled. They used to be manageable; it was so easy to ignore them back then. But now it was getting to the point where I just looked absolutely mental half the time when I was out in public.

Finding a band aid in the medical cabinet, I placed it over my cut carefully. I fixed my bangs as best as I could with my fingers. My brush had disappeared not too long ago.

It would just have to do.

"You look like a twelve year-old prostitute!" The angry elderly woman ghost yelled from inside the bathroom closet behind me. Now, if only I could tell Rae that this was why it seemed that my ego was taking a total beating.

I wrapped my towel tighter around my body, opening the door to my bedroom. Two fourteen inch long demon centipedes walked into the bathroom.

"Ew." I murmured quietly, a shiver going up my spine as I watched the pale faced creatures crawl onto the toilet to continue their chat.

When I got home from the tournament a few weeks ago [Three days before Kurama went home, in order to keep our parents from getting paranoid], I came clean about where I'd really been. Of course, I omitted the part about Kurama and all of his secrets. Since she really had no idea how to punish me because I wasn't exactly a very bad kid, she made me get a job where she used to work. I thought that this was a great deal, until I actually got there.

Turns out the guy that had owned where she worked had passed away a few months ago, and his son had inherited the place. He fired everyone over the age of twenty-five, and hired anyone younger than twenty-four. He was, to put it nicely, an absolute pervert. But, my mom wasn't about to let me quit.

I pulled on my underwear and clipped my bra behind my back. Searching through my things, I grabbed a white skirt and a light blue tank top. Slipping into my clothes, I looked at the alarm clock. I had twenty minutes to get downtown to the diner.

Walking down the stairs, I put my hair up. My mom had already headed off to her new job; she worked in a nice restaurant. I got outside, waved over to Shiori and then got on my bike. Within the eighteen minutes I had left, I had gotten to work and slid the apron on.

The next four hours were fairly uneventful. Even the amount of demons and ghosts weren't getting to me, at least not enough for someone to decide to eat elsewhere.

As someone sat down in the front of the diner, I stood up and cracked my neck. I would be getting off in about thirty minutes, and soon Nika would be in to take over. If she wasn't late again, this would be the fourth time this week.

Grabbing a menu from behind the counter, I headed to greet the new customer. The man was tall, and thin with olive skin. "Welcome." I said, placing the menu down in front of him.

"Can I get you something to drink?" I asked, pulling out my small notepad, ready to write it down.

"Kira." He said, looking up at me. I smiled and nodded, not thinking much of it considering I was wearing a name tag. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

I had no idea who this man was, and the only thing I could think of how he would know me was if he had known my mother. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well."

"Tell me, how is Yusuke doing?" He asked, and I nearly broke my neck looking up at him. My entire body tensed when I heard those words, and I took a step back. He didn't look like he was possessed by a demon, which probably scared me further.

"He's great." I said, but I hadn't seen the black haired boy since the tournament ended. But he was generally fine, unless something had happened to him.

"Sit down." He said, offering me the seat in front of him.

"I'm working." I said, holding up the front of the apron to emphasize that I wasn't just a person who walked around and asked people's orders for a survey.

"Sit down." He said, this time sounding a bit more firm about it. He scared me, so I sat down across from him.

I prayed that my boss would come out and yell at me to get back to work, but apparently I would have no such luck.

"I am curious about you." He said, staring me right in the eyes. His eyes were small, and they reminded me of a snake about to strike. I felt myself sinking down in the seat, and I didn't answer him. My eyes traveled up to the ovoid jewel. "What is going on between you and Kurama?"

"Nothing." I knew that was not the answer that he wanted, but at least I was being honest. Even if something were happening between me and Kurama, I definitely wouldn't tell someone that was as strange as this man. "Who are you?"

"My name is Shinobu Sensui." He said. I nodded, brushing a bit of my bangs out of my eyes. "I would like for you to assist me and my friends out. We're like you, we have these…Abilities."

That made my eyes rise, and I looked at him. "What do you know?"

He reached out and lifted my bangs up, revealing the band aid on my forehead. "A lot."

Creepy.

"I have to get back to work." I said, just as my boss came out. I bowed to the man that seemed to know everything, and quickly went into the back.

Taking in a deep breath of fresh air, I shut my eyes and tilted my face up to the sky. I'd escaped the man, but now I was wondering what he wanted me to do for him. I wondered if maybe I'd walked away from someone that was a good person. But something in me told me that he wasn't.

"Kira." I turned around to the sound of my voice, a smile coming on my lips as I looked at Kurama. But he was not going to return that smile. "How do you know that man?"

"He was a customer." I said, shrugging as I walked over to him, tilting my head to the side as I looked into his deep green eyes. "It's been a while."

From the day we arrived back home, Kurama seemed to get very busy, very fast. I guess it was probably because of how much school we missed by heading out on the tournament.

"I don't want you befriending him." He said, ignoring me.

"I wasn't!" I was quick to defend myself.

"He's dangerous."

"I figured."

"Please." He said his hard exterior breaking as he looked at me with a pleading look in his eyes.

"Kurama, what's going on?" I asked, moving closer to him. I was so thankful that he didn't back away from me. He slid an arm around my neck and pulled me close to him. We stayed like this for a little bit.

"I'm not entirely sure." He said, holding me closer. I shut my eyes and wrapped my arms around his waist.

"He knows that who I am and that I know you." Because I was holding onto him, I could feel almost every muscle in his body tense up. I looked up at him, his eyes shadowed by his bangs.

Kurama had brought me home, and I could tell that he was worried about what Sensui knew about me. About us, especially about our friendship and whatever else had happened in our relationship. My mom wasn't home, which wasn't surprising. After locking all the doors to my house, I went upstairs and got changed into bed clothes.

Letting out a quiet yawn, I crawled into bed and fell asleep.

If only I locked the window.


	9. End

The sound of a car speeding through the streets penetrated through my dreamless sleep. The car jerked to a stop somewhere, waking me up and sending my heart into a wild frenzy.

This…Was definitely not where I fell asleep a few hours ago.

"She's awake…Looks like the Doctor didn't give us enough."

As they drove, small flashes of light from the streets were making it hard for my eyes to properly adjust. I could make out the forms of two people up front and one person behind me. I couldn't tell anything distinguishing about them.

"What's going on?" I asked, my voice sounded thick with exhaustion from whatever they had given me. I began to raise my head, getting a closed fist to the top of my skull. It wasn't hard enough to knock me black out, but it was hard enough to send me back down.

With my skull throbbing, I reached behind me in the darkness, trying to find the handle to open the car door. My fingers brushed the handle, and I wrapped my fingers around it. I couldn't very well sit up and slide out of the car, and the car was going at a speed that was destined to cause some serious injury if I jumped out like this.

I had an idea, but I'd never tried it before. That pathetic idea was all I had, or else without a doubt something very bad was going to happen.

Pushing up on the handle, I felt the door swing open behind me. Shutting my eyes tightly I forced myself out of the car door before the man behind me could grab me. I slid out of the car quickly, my heart racing in my ears as I nearly hit the ground while the car was going at least eighty miles per hour.

It was as though a draft of wind had picked me up, lifting me up in the air and then setting me on my feet. Well, if I actually managed to fall on my feet, which I didn't. I landed on my knees, not really being able to control where I fell.

The car screeched to a halt about twenty feet away, the doors flying open as three boys got out of the car. One was unbelievably tall with big lips and black hair, another had blonde hair, and the other had black hair.

"Knew she wasn't that stupid." The shorter one with black hair said, staring at me as they advanced towards me. "You should have locked the fucking door."

"We didn't even think that she'd wake up before we got back." The blonde haired boy said, the tall one said nothing, but he was the one moving faster than the others towards me.

Pushing myself up, I took a step back away from him, looking up towards his face. "What do you want with me?"

He laughed, his hand reaching out with surprising speed and grabbing me by the roots of my hair. He lifted me up, as I uselessly kicked at him, not even having that much behind my kicks.

"Go back to sleep." He said, and as he said that, I felt the prick of a needle in the side of my neck, and soon the world around me was black.

From the time that I got kidnapped to the time that Kuwabara got kidnapped was a bit of a blur, they kept me well drugged until the day that he showed up. I was barely conscious when Kuwabara, me and Gourmet got into the boat and sent out into the water.

My forehead was pressed against Kuwabara's back, barely conscious as the water nearly lulled me back to sleep. But I no longer had the drugs in my system, and I was trying to fight off the sickness and headache.

With the gag in his mouth, it was kind of hard to understand what Kuwabara was saying but I was pretty sure it was going along these lines: "We're gonna be okay. Yusuke and Kurama are gonna be alright, we're gonna kick this guys ass!"

He said that a little bit too loud, getting a knock from Gourmet who was clearly listening. Even though Kuwabara got hit for it, I did laugh a little bit and my mood was lifted. I was hoping that he was right, but after an undetermined amount of time from before to now, I was still nervous.

"I'm scared." I whispered quietly into his back, shutting my eyes. I couldn't help it, I had fallen sound asleep as we sat there.

"Kuwabara, Kira are you guys okay!" Yusuke's yell woke me up, turning my head quickly as I looked over at him. Behind him, Kurama was standing there, his green eyes trained on me. I could see that he was relieved to see me, but there was something else bothering him. "Did they do anything to you guys?"

"Yeah!" I yelled over Kuwabara's muffled rambling. "They didn't do anything."

I really didn't have the time to explain what they had done to me, just tell them that we were fine and we weren't damaged goods. I was surprised by this, that they hadn't beaten us around, which made me think that we had some kind of bigger part of Sensui's plan.

The next hour and a half was intense.

Kurama killed Gourmet who turned out to actually be housing Older Toguro inside of himself, but then Kurama just left Toguro in the grip of a plant while he screamed insanely.

Then the boys with the exception of Yusuke were sucked up into a giant face on the wall. Everyone seemed to forget that I was even there, which was fine with me. I'd managed to crawl over to a side of the wall, sinking down with my hands partially covering my face.

As I watched Yusuke fall to the ground, a sudden sickness came over me as I watched him fall. I knew that he was dead before he even hit the ground, everyone did. I let out a scream, which was a big mistake. Sensui seemed to remember who I was just as the boys fell to the ground not too far away.

I noticed that Kurama's hair had turned white, and he had become his demon form. He was just so amazing looking, and it was so inappropriate to be thinking about that right now. I felt like a stupid little girl thinking that.

But while I was being distracted by Kurama, I watched as Hiei got prepared to send a whole lot of hell at Sensui. At the same time, Sensui decided that I was suddenly going to become useful, in whatever way he thought I was going to be.

I felt the arms lift me up from the ground where I had been, my eyes widening as the Dragon of the Darkness Flame came right towards where Sensui was forcing me to be. I'd seen what the impact of the dragon was, and this was definitely not a place I wanted to be.

In a feeble attempt to save my ass, I raised my hands straight out in front of me with my hands facing towards the dragon. I didn't think I had a chance.

But as it turns out, I did, at least kind of.

I have no idea how it happened, but it was suddenly as though we were being pulled through cyberspace, the dragon was gone and I was still alive. Well, I really didn't know if I was alive, but I really hoped the Spirit World wasn't going to be this freaky.

Sensui was still having a firm grasp on me as we drifted through a large gate like thing. It took some time, but the others were quickly coming up in front of us. I took in a sharp breath as I watched the fight going on, I was too scared to listen in.

But I could feel those golden eyes on me, and I was watching him in hopes that he could get me out of this sociopathic, schizophrenic nutball's grip.

"We're going to get you!" Kuwabara yelled, slicing through the gate that had prevented Kurama from entering this side. I wasn't sure if he meant he was going to kill Sensui, or save me. I hoped that he meant both.

The second that it was cut through, Sensui was pulling me backwards, sending us both flying further through cyber space. Until we went flying and suddenly we were falling to the ground.

That was when Sensui decided to let me go, as we were hurtling towards the ground. If I was feeling more in the mood for sarcasm, there would be a whole lot of things I'd like to say to him!

"Oh my God!" I whispered, tumbling through the sky, spinning a little bit as I tried to gain some control of what was happening. During one of my spins, I saw Kurama, Hiei and Kuwabara flying down above me.

Everything seemed to turn faster as I got closer to the ground. As I fell, the last thing I felt was a rock smashing the back of my head, then darkness.

My eyes slowly opened, raising a hand as I felt a throb in the back of my head.

"Be careful." Kurama murmured. I listened to him move closer to me from wherever he had been in the room, and when he came into my view I smiled a bit.

"Am I dead?" I asked quietly, feeling the gauze on the back of my head as I lifted it up.

"No." He said, sitting beside me on the bed and reaching over, lifting up the gauze to inspect it. I winced a bit at the feeling of the air touching the area, so he placed it back down over my scalp.

"What happened?" I asked, shutting my eyes.

"You hit your head on a rock when you fell, you nearly died…" He said, sounding like he was in pain.

"What else?"

"Yusuke came back from the dead, killed Sensui and we came back to the human plane." He said, and I felt his warm breath against my forehead, where he pressed a soft kiss to my forehead.

I smiled and nodded. "That's good." I whispered, opening my eyes and looking up at him.

It was then when we shared a soft kiss, one that was filled with…I don't want to say love, but for lack of a better word, that's what it was full of. It lasted for a minute, and then he slowly pulled away from me.

"I have to leave." He said, letting out a slow sigh.

"Where are you going?" I asked, a sharp pain going from the back of my brain to the center of my heart.

"The demon plane." He said, fixing my bangs as he looked down at me. "I'll be gone for a while."

"What?" I said, sitting up a little too fast. A wave of dizziness came over me as I sat there, rubbing my forehead.

"I'll be back." He said, grabbing my hand, but I swatted him away.

"I can't do this anymore!" I said, and maybe it was my brain yelling at me. "I can't wonder if you're not going to come back this time!" I said this part more quietly.

He frowned as he looked at me, and we both knew he could not promise that he wouldn't die on me. He was my closest friend, but this was too much.

"I'll be back." He murmured, handing me the key to the hotel room that he had ninja'd me too.

"I won't be here when you get back!" I said, my lower lip trembling as he walked away.

And, I wasn't there.

* * *

><p>Author's Note:<p>

And welcome to the end of Two as One, but also the beginning to the actual story that this will lead up too.

It will be called Apocalyptic Rose, and it will be about a year after this.

THAT will be the story where you get further inside her head and meet the person she becomes after all this. With a bit of help.

By the way, if you have any questions for me, send it to .me/zydratee so that I can actually respond to you!


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